oldsteelmaker

One of my college friends was in the green power industry. He made power storage devices. Wind and solar have one huge problem, they are too variable. His system used big flywheels to store power when you have it, for release when you don't. Problem was, it wasn't sexy enough for our Washington masters, and they pushed batteries. Didn't matter that flywheels are much more efficient, the owner was a Republican. So the company is dead, the best technology is gone, and we get to see pinheads with no practical engineering knowledge tell us what works!!!

WVUGEO

While we're at it, if you do a web search for "USDOE Coal Liquids Competitive With $50 Oil", you might be led to a commentary report, with an additional link to an official, US Department of Energy brochure entitled "Coal-to-Liquids Technology; Clean Liquid Fuels from Coal". If you find it, read it closely and you'll discover that the USDOE itself, in February of 2008, said that liquid fuels made from Coal "can be zero-sulfur, zero aromatic ..., can be used in existing engines (and) can be distributed using the existing crude oil and product infrastructure". Moreover, synthetic crude oil made from Coal "can be competitive with crude oil at $50/bbl".

WVUGEO

And even further, concerning our previous mention of WVU helping China convert Coal into liquid fuel, a report you might be able to find via a web search for "WVU and China Coal to $24 per Barrel Oil", WVU Professor Jerald Fletcher, via a slide presentation dated 2004, says that Coal can be converted into synthetic crude oil at a cost of $24 per barrel. Again: Why haven't we, in West Virginia especially, been publicly told about that?

WVUGEO

impact: Thanks for the feedback. We've started to draw some sad, similar conclusions ourselves. Tragic when you think about it. We have some wonderful opportunities available for all of us; but, the seemingly personal agendas of a few prevent us all from being able to, openly and honestly, consider them.

impact

The answe, GEO, is that anything that can be considered "green" is bad (except money). Clean energy=political correctness=liberal=evil! This man is not a journalist, nor an educator, nor a friend of the good people of the Ohio Valley. He is a businessman with an agenda to promote, and he utilizes this bully pulpit to that end.

WVUGEO

The disputatious among you out there will argue that converting Carbon Dioxide into liquid fuel, as they are now doing in Iceland, doesn't reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere; but, only sort of "churns" it. CO2 can also be used to synthesize plastics, where the CO2 would be permanently consumed. There is a story available online: "Bayer Material Science CO2-to-Plastics Pilot Plant, Germany", which we believe is based on a Bayer Corporation news release. Bayer should be familiar to everyone in the Valley. The story says, in part: "In February 2011, Bayer MaterialScience started a new pilot plant (in the) North Rhine-Westphalia state of Germany for producing plastics from carbon dioxide (CO2). It will be used to develop polyurethanes from the waste gas released during power generation". How come the editors of this paper haven't told us Coal mining folk about that, if they really are so concerned about WV's "vital coal industry"?

WVUGEO

Furthermore, Coal Fly Ash has been used as a property-enhancing fine aggregate in concrete since the 1930’s. Perhaps of interest, Coal Ash was used in, added to, the concrete with which the Ronald Reagan Government Office building, in Washington, D.C., was built. The Reagan Building is now home to the US EPA headquarters. With the amount of concrete poured in this country every year, all of the Coal Ash produced could be so utilized. How come we haven't been told in this paper, if it's editors really are so concerned about WV's "vital coal industry", about any of that?

WVUGEO

This commentator warns that the misguided spending on "alternatives" could result in "harming the state's vital coal industry". If the state's coal industry is so "vital" to him, then why doesn't he devote some time to promoting it and educating us all about it's potentials to become even more "vital"? They have, profitably, been converting Coal into Gasoline and Diesel in South Africa for more than half a century. China reports themselves to be, using a process developed in part by WVU, making "huge profits" converting Coal into liquid fuels. How come we haven't been told in these pages about any of that? For the Carbon Dioxide whiners, the nation of Iceland is converting CO2 into fuel alcohol that they sell through filling stations in Europe.